Three new entries in the U.S Patents & Trademark Office website indicate that Blizzard is extremely interested in the word Cataclysm, but why?

Blizzard should just give up on quietly filing trademark applications. The moment one hits, somebody has it linked, print-screened, and posted on the internet, so a company as wise as Blizz has to have a damn good reason to expose their secrets like that. Perhaps next month's BlizzCon? Either way, the company is now the proud owner of three trademarks for the word "Cataclysm". Any guesses?

The first listing, which refers to delivering computer games via an online network, has some speculating hat Cataclysm is simply the true name of Battle.Net 2.0, to be revealed at a later date.

Entertainment services, namely, providing on-line computer games; providing computer games that may be accessed via a global computer network; and providing on-line information in the field of computer gaming entertainment

The next listing gets a bit more game-specific, but still could support the Battle.Net 2.0 theory.

Computer game software and related instruction manuals and guides sold together as a unit; downloadable computer game software; interactive multimedia computer game program; mousepads

The third and final filing for Cataclysm however points in a different direction, indicating a potential marketing blitz for whatever it winds up being that exceeds anything we'd expect from a simple Battle.Net re-branding.

So where do we stand? Well, Blizzard does have a couple of original intellectual properties they've been hiring help for, so Cataclysm could certainly be one of those...or perhaps something is going to happen to that swirling Sunwell maelstrom in the middle of World of Warcraft's Azeroth, causing new lands to rise and the existing ones to change in the face of some great disaster, leading to the next expansion for that game? Come on kids, join in! Wild speculation isn't fun unless we're all doing it.